actress
Americannoun
noun
-
a woman who acts in a play, film, broadcast, etc
-
informal a woman who puts on a false manner in order to deceive others
Usage
Use of the word actress to refer to a female who acts is old-fashioned. The modern gender-neutral form is actor
Gender
What's the difference between actress and actor? See -ess.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of actress
Vocabulary lists containing actress
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Anne Boleyn actress Jodie Turner-Smith described Jonsson as the "loveliest human" and said she was "seated" for his performance.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, a Black actress who played Lieutenant Uhura, made history in 1968 with one of the first interracial kisses ever seen on US television.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
Nicolas Winding Refn directs this inscrutable yet mesmerizing thriller that follows the converging stories of an actress, an American G.I., and a mysterious murderer called the Leather Man.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Directed by Damien Chazelle, “La La Land” was nominated for 14 Oscars, winning six, including lead actress for Stone and director.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The actress was near the bottom of the stairs when she missed a step.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
"I always sort of go back to classic actresses in the way that they could sort of toe a line between extreme femininity and just rock hard will and grit," she said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
She and Jackie Hoffman will be two American narrators for the show, while two British actresses perform the scenes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
And if we deprive gay guys of their annual chance to make Mother’s Day about their personal taste in actresses, God help us all.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
The two actresses make for a smashing comic duo in this production of the Noël Coward play about two women eager to rekindle a romance with the same French lothario.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
The other actors and actresses all shifted around and looked uncomfortable, probably remembering all the awful things they’d said and wondering how I’d portray them and their secrets on-screen.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
